


Thick Girl

by AluraEmbrey



Category: Glee
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-03
Updated: 2011-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 16:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AluraEmbrey/pseuds/AluraEmbrey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wes was looking good. On Valentines Days. In the Breadstix bathroom. Single. Alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thick Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill to my friend's prompt in the glee_fluff_meme. Somehow each of us posting in the fluff meme turned into us challenging each other to fill each other's prompts by the end of March. We both completed the challenge (at the very last minute) and beta'd for each other. So thanks to abjusticc for being an awesome friend, prompter and beta. Also, some last minute beta catches were by my dear friend Kira, who I don't think has an LJ and that needs to be rectified.
> 
> Also, written before his last name was revealed and I'm too lazy to change it. I mean, artistic integrity?

Performing at Breadstick had been fun. Kurt, much as he might be loath to admit it, had really been on to something when he talked about how preforming somewhere other than the safety of Dalton pushed them. With a strange and different audience around them, the group had to re-double their efforts to sound better, move better, preform better. So while it didn't go with the tradition that Dalton has maintained for many years, and while it probably won't become a habit, Wes thinks he could probably stand to let the Warblers preform outside of school. Every once in a while. Maybe.

So it was a very proud Wes that washed his hands in the Breadstix bathroom, drying them on disposable paper towel and then looking in the mirror. Uniform still in order, unsullied and straight. (There had been a splash scare at the urinal he didn’t want to think about.) Perfect. Yup, Wesley Dang was looking good.

On Valentines Days. In the Breadstix bathroom. Single. Alone.

Not that he was upset or anything. No way. Sure, it had been a surprise when Lucy had dumped him two weeks prior, but that was alright. Honestly. Though it was true that he had just begun plans for a very romantic Valentines Day when she told him that though she liked him, the strain of commute was simply getting to her with her new, busy schedule. (It was only thirty minutes, forty-five in traffic, seriously.) Still, Wes was hunky-dory and was handling the rejection fine. Besides, he has Regionals to worry about and a show choir to whip into shape.

Speaking of which, they should have an extra practice this weekend, today’s performance had shown him a few flaws that could be strengthened. Kevin really needed to stop being about a half-second behind on all his steps and Marshal was...

The familiar laugh of his best friend broke through his thoughts causing him to look up. It seemed like a mish-mash of Dalton Warblers and McKinley New Directions had decided to push some tables together and make a night of it. Towards the middle sat Blaine, his head cocked back and laughing at something someone must have said. Others were laughing too of course, but he'd know Blaine's voice anywhere.

As he walked closer he couldn't help the little pang of annoyance that cut through him because, ugh, they were doing it again. Kurt and Blaine were doing that eye sex thing, where they looked at each other and you could pretty much see the little cartoon hearts floating in front of their pupils. Seriously, what was Blaine thinking singing to another guy? Honestly, if Wes had to go through much more of their eye sexing he was going to lock them in a broom closet or something back at Dalton; the risk for being cliché was worth it.

Next to Blaine there was a chair open, his usual seat. He always sat on Blaine's right. David sat on Blaine's left. If Wes was sitting in the centre, then he and Blaine switched. David was always on the left though, somehow. It just always happened that way.  
  
“There you are, Wes.” Blaine said, looking at his friend, the smile still on his face. Well, much as their tip-toeing around each other was annoying, at least Blaine had something to smile about. That was something. Wes smiled back as best he could, though he could tell by the slight knit in his friend's brow that it hadn't reached his eyes. Still Blaine forged onward. “Tina was just telling us about Kurt's first time performing with New Directions.”  
  
Wes looked towards the other student and saw that he was blushing slightly, though he did at least look good natured about being the centre of conversation.  
  
“Oh, Mercedes. Be nice to Wes, ok? He's fragile.” His so called friend added with a wink at both him and the girl sitting in across from him. Wes hadn't even been paying attention to who else was at the table. His mind on other things. Now that he was looking though, he couldn't look away. Across from him was...  
  
Well the only word his teenage mind could come up with was 'DAA-YUUM'. She had lips that were full and red, and Wes couldn't help but have his eyes linger there for a few moments before slowly sliding upwards. A cute little nose, raised high and proud, shiny, black hair pulled away from her dark face. A hat to match her red lips on top and finally, her eyes. Deep, dark brown eyes that were giving him an expression he couldn't possibly mistake if he tried.  
  
They meant death.  
  
Wes gulped deeply, his own brown eyes widening in alarm. What had be done? Stubbed her toe when he sat? No, he'd have felt that. Accidentally knocked her knee? No, he'd have felt that too. Honestly, Wes had only been sitting in this seat a minute or two, and he hadn't said anything to her. So what could he have done to piss this lovely lady off? Was it because he hadn't introduced himself? Well, that was rude. Best to rectify this.  
  
“Hello. I'm Wes.”  
  
The perfectly sculpted brow above one eye rose, turning the expression, if not more murderous, than at least more condescending. “I know. Blaine just said.”  
  
“Oh...right.”  
  
Very articulate Dang. Very smooth. He thought to himself, his eyes closing for a moment in shame. When he opened them again, Mercedes wasn't looking at him at all. She was looking at Kurt next to her as the boy talked, her facial expression much different than before. Amusement shown on her features, as well as a tender bit of love and care. Wes didn't need Blaine's constant chatter about The Life and Times of Kurt Hummel to see that she cared for the countertenor. Not romantically, that was abundantly clear. More like a brother from another mother or however that saying went. Like she would do anything for this kid, no matter what it took. Real, loyal friendship. Admirable.  
  
He got all of this from a five second look before she glanced at him again, glare fully back in place. Wes gulped again.

Ah shit.

This time her glaring at him didn't last long, thankfully. Instead she turned to look back towards the centre of conversation. His existence all but forgotten. But that doesn't mean Wes isn't thinking about her. Or that he had stopped looking at her. Sure it might be a bit creepy, but the boy couldn't seem to stop himself. Mercedes was, simply put, smokin' hot. A blind man could see that. More than that though, she seemed to have this crazy inner-strength in her too, like no one messed with her and got away with it. Her glare, while scary, had shown him that.

Except he's still not exactly sure why she was giving him the stink eye to begin with. A nudge in his ribs brought Wes's brown eyes away from the girl in front of him. David was looking at him with a little tilt to his head, clearly saying 'What the hell, dude? Creepy staring much?'

Wes simply looked away, not dignifying that unspoken question with a response. He just went back to not-at-all-creepily staring. It seemed like a good plan to him, until Blaine turned away from Kurt to give him an odd look. Blaine. When Blaine Anderson looks away from Kurt Hummel just to give you questioning looks, you know you need to stop. So Wes snapped his eyes to the front of the restaurant and kept them there. Up front the manager he had spoken with earlier and some other employee were fighting with the sound equipment. It looked like a losing battle for their side.

However, it did give Wes a brilliant idea. Without bothering to speak, he tugged on the sleeve of David's jacket hard, pulling the taller boy up as he stood. David cut off mid-sentence from where he was talking to Thad and gave him a startled look.

“What? I didn't do it. Or I don't want to do it. Either or,” he said stupidly as he followed.

Wes rolled his eyes but didn't let his best friend's comments deter him, he walked up towards the manager and put on his best prep-school, Charm Smile. “Hello, Sir. I'm Wes, we spoke earlier.”

The older man nodded, so the teen took that as his clearance to keep speaking. “I hope you liked our performance earlier, Sir. In fact, we'd like to do another one, if you don't mind.”

Wes felt the strength of David's eyebrow raising from behind him, but he ignored in exchange for looking at the manager. A look of relief came over his face as he dropped the cable he was holding like it was on fire. “Sure, kid. Knock yourself out.”

The two workers were out of there quickly, leaving the stage area free for Wes and David.

“We're preforming again are we? Shouldn't we grab Blaine then?” David asked, stepping around to put the cables back where they should be.

“No. It's just going to be us two.”

Wes watched as his friend stopped mid-motion to look at him again. His face was descriptive to Wes only because he had known it so long, unlike how Mercedes's seem to shout her messages to the world. “The last time we sang a song together, just the two of us, was junior high.”

“I know.” He replied with absolute conviction. He was a man on a mission.

It didn't take them long to fix the mess that the manager had made, and even less time for them to make sure they knew their parts still. Junior high was a long time ago. Before long, the microphones were turned back on a familiar humming harmony filled the room again. It didn't take long the general hubbub of the room to quiet down as they all realized that someone was about to sing again.

_Tell me fellas have you seen her?  
It was about five minutes ago_

_When I seen the hottest chick_

_That a young'n  
Never seen before _

One of the reasons why Wes is on the Warbler Council is because be has the ability to perform and pay attention at the same time. Even as his tenor voice is filling a room softly, with his best friend's deeper voice providing backup vocals and beat, he can pay attention to the individual responses of the audience. The Warblers were all giving the two of them strange looks, varying from shock, to confusion to mild-amusment. Blaine's eyes were so wide they might have been taped open and Kurt's shock was palpable from across the room.

New Directions, on the other hand, hardly seemed fazed. Kurt had said that they often broke into song and dance, but Wes had been sure that he was exaggerating. Clearly not though, because while they were nodding along, they didn't seem to be shocked over having two guys randomly burst out into Chris Brown in the middle of a restaurant.

What was McKinley like?

_I don't know your name but excuse me miss  
I saw you from across the room _

Another trait that Wes had was knowing when to up his game and performance. While Blaine has natural charisma, and affinity for climbing on furniture, Wes has a more calculated approach. Start off slow, then bring out more skills along the way. So instead of just standing there and continuing to belt out the next line, he grabbed hold of his microphone, taking it off its stand to give him freer range of motion.

_Now shorty grab hold of my hand  
And let's pretend the floor is ours_

He sang, his hand extended in the air as if to be taken, his fingers reaching for the dark girl. If there was any doubt before about who he was serenading, there wasn't now. Several heads, both New Directions and Warbler, looked between him and Mercedes. Blaine, Kurt, Nick, Thad to name just a few. But he couldn't let himself be distracted by them knowing. He needed to keep going.

_I want to be where you are  
Ain't nothing wrong with dancing  
Baby it's so romantic_

The end of their rendition song was nearing, a softer slower feel filling the room to match the music. His voice dropped a bit, as if to not scare off the girl, but it lost none of its power and tone. He may prefer background vocals so he can best observe everyone, but you can't be a Warbler without talent. Looking farther out into the tables, he saw strangers swaying to the tone, a couple people mouthing a long, but everyone looking like they were impressed over all.

Except he still hadn't looked at Mercedes. Not once.

_Just let her know she was made for you.  
And you want to do everything she want to man_

Wes let the last note hang in the air as David hummed a long his back vocals, hitting a sensual low note that was just out of Wes's range, but complemented his own perfectly. Slowly they hummed the song to a close, the applause already breaking out from the guests around the room. The pair gave a little bow before walking away from the stage area and toward the long table they had been sitting at.

Well, David headed towards the table. Wes headed towards the bathrooms, his hands suddenly disgustingly sweaty and needing to be washed again lest he wipe them on his uniform. Which is against the Warbler rules, of course. It's in the handbook. So Wes entered the washroom for the second time in less than an hour, feeling like an old person with bladder control issues. Or like a nervous teenage boy, take your pick.

He does wash his hands though, because clean hands are always a good thing to have, uniform rules or not. Wes also, may or may not take a minute or two in the mirror to preen. A bit. Not much at all. If it even happened that is. And if it did, it's not really preening so much as making sure that as a Senior Warbler and representative of Dalton Academy, he looks his best while wearing their colours. It's just him being responsible.

Right? Right!

Having soothed his ego, Wes heads back out to the dining room, prepared to finally face Mercedes and see her reaction to his performance. However, he didn't even round the corner before coming face to face with the girl he was thinking of, bitch face fully in place.

“Look, here's the deal. My boy, Kurt? He's fabulous and he's like a baby brother to me. You mess with Kurt, you mess with me.”

Wes opened his mouth to try to defend himself but nothing came out. This was about Kurt? She didn't like him because of him? Did Kurt hate him? Wes didn't think so, but maybe the newer boy had taken not getting a solo harder than most people did. But there were traditions in place and procedures, he couldn't just give anyone a solo, especially without them having some sort of standing in the group. Didn't Kurt.

“Don't speak.” She interrupted his thoughts, putting her hand up and turning to the side, as if he weren't even important enough to look straight at while threatening. That hurt. “Kurt may be nice enough to take you shooting down all his ideas, but I'm not. My boy has more talent in his pinky finger, than you do in your entire scrawny body.”

Scrawny!

“So watch yourself and don't say I didn't warn you.” And with that last nearly flippant remark she walked straight past him, presumably to the women's bathroom.

It took a moment before Wes found his ability to move again, but when he did he turned on his heel and stared at the door she had entered. Had she really just yelled at him because he didn't take all of Kurt's eccentric advice? Things in New Directions maybe willy-nilly and crazy, but it wasn't like that for the Warblers. They decided their setlist for Regionals two months in advanced, for goodness's sake! And who was she to just yell at him like that? He hadn't done anything wrong at all. Not to mention they hardly even knew each other!

He should be angry. No, he should be offended and down right pissed off. Instead, he was just plain turned on.

By the time he got back to the table, David had just finished telling the story of why they even had a duet version of Yo, Excuse Me Miss to begin with. Honestly, did David have to tell everyone about his junior high attempt to ask out Cynthia Chang? Including the part where the principal had escorted him to his office after, to explain about making a spectacle of himself and the honour of the school. Except, at least the serenading had worked then, unlike now when he had just gotten seriously bitched out.

“Nice job.” Blaine said to him, patting him on the shoulder in a friendly, Blainey-sort of way. It would be comforting, if not for the way Blaine's forehead was crinkled together clearly said that he was trying to stop from laughing. Did he want to be reminded of the Gap Attack? Cause Wes would do it.

Wes was too busy glaring at Blaine and thinking of banning the Warblers from singing any more Katy Perry to realize that Mercedes had sat back down across from him. But he did notice Kurt speaking. “Hey, Mercedes, ready to head back to my place for our movie marathon?”

Seeing a clear opening he could use, Wes turned immediately to the newest Warbler and smiled as nicely as he could. “Oh, what are you two watching?”

If Kurt was surprised to be asked that by Wes, he didn't show it. But then again, he didn't know Kurt all that well, so maybe he just couldn't read his expressions well. “We're having a Mandy Moore-athon.”

Mandy Moore... wasn't she was a singer or something?

“Oh... well have fun!” Wes said, trying to sound nice and encouraging. Though, even to his ears he could tell that he just sounded a bit awkward and a touch pathetic.

“Right, thanks.” Kurt said in that voice that he heard him use when telling Blaine to get down off the couch before he ruined the upholstery. “Anyway, ready to go? I already have our checks.”

“All right, Boo. Sounds like a plan. Though we need to stop for ice cream on the way. I need my Rocky Road.” Mercedes said reaching around as she spoke. From somewhere magical – ok, under her chair, but whatever - she pulled out her purse. It was one of those large things Wes always thought was more like a suitcase than a purse, but he didn't know a lot about purses to begin with. Lucy once had him go shopping with her for a new one and that was a disaster and a half.

“Oh. Oh, oh no.” Mercedes muttered, as Wes watched her soft looking hand feel around in the bag.

“What is it?” Kurt asked, pausing his conversation with Blaine to look back at her. Wes watched as she turned her face towards him, a sad frown evident that Wes wished he could wipe away.

“I changed purses when I changed my outfit and I must have left my wallet on my desk. Damn!” The frustration and annoyance with herself was clear for everyone to see and honestly, it was a simple mistake to make. Everyone forgot things at some point in time or another, so there was no reason to feel bad. Which is the only explanation he has for what happened next.

“Don't worry, I got it.”

The words came from two places at once. Wes turned to lock eyes with the other speaker, Kurt giving him a strange, but oddly amused look. He could feel his own face heating up, not helped at all by the fact that snorts of laughter were coming from both sides of him. But Wes refused to feel bad. Not at all. He had made his offer and he was going to stick to it.

Wes watched Mercedes closely, as she turned to look at Kurt with a bit of a smirk before turning to Wes himself. He expected a smile and a thank you, or heck, even just a smile would be nice. What he gets instead is just a different version of the bitch face, complete with smirk as she pushed her check towards him. It made him feel the need to gulp, but instead he just smiled back as best he could and took out his wallet. His Amex hit the tray with the clang of plastic on plastic, but no one else seemed to notice.

Around him the conversations all started again, but he couldn't bring himself to join in. He was batting a firm zero here so far, and each time he tried to impress Mercedes more, she just gave him another bitch face. Really now! He was a nice guy! Hadn't he showed interest in what Kurt liked? Offered to pay for her meal? Not to mention, sang her a song. Seriously, what more could a guy do!

While he racked his brain for more ideas, the waitress came and went, ringing up all their bills and delivering change and cards back to the right people. Before he even had his wallet out to put his card back up, Kurt and Mercedes were already up and leaving the table. He watched helplessly for a second as his last chance walked away, the got immediately to his feet and nearly jumped around David to catch up.

He may have had to spin on his heel to manage it.

With some very brisk walking and blatant ignoring of a couple of his fellow Warblers, he managed to get to the door the same time as the pair. In fact, he nearly collided with Kurt as he stopped, who gave him his own version of a bitch face. “Did you want to join us for our Moore-athon?”

“Uh, no.” Wes said, taking a step back. Which he only took because he was standing awkwardly close to Kurt, not because he was getting dual bitch faced right now. “I was just heading to my car.”

“Right.” Kurt said, a smirk making his way onto his face. “Didn't you drive Blaine, David and Thad?”

Oh damn, he was right. Looking back towards the table Wes saw that the three in question were standing and talking, shooting the door odd glances. The amusement was evident on their faces even from where he was standing across the room. Couldn't they hurry it up? Or at least not look at him that way?

“I'll go warm up the car and bring it to the door. I know you hate cold cars.” The countertenor said to Mercedes, not even waiting for Wes to reply.

“Thanks, Boo.” Mercedes said as the taller boy walked out. That left just the two of them. Which is what Wes wanted, but it didn't seem like that's what she wanted at all.

There was an awkward moment of them just looking at each other, no one saying anything and Wes being a tinsy bit afraid that he might get bitched out again. Instead, she finally broke eye contact to roll her eyes and let out a breath that was part way between a laugh and a sigh. She shook her head at him before taking the final steps to the door and opening it. Wes could feel his chance slipping away, without him being able to do anything but stand there and look stupid.

Valentines Day sucked.

“Kurt has my number.”

Wes's eyes shot back up to lock with hers. She was rolling her brown eyes yet again, but this time there was no bitch face on. Instead, she looked amused and there may have been a tiny smile there as well. He couldn't be sure though, because she turned quickly to leave for good. But he knew for damned sure that he had a giant grin on his face.

Score one for Wes!


End file.
